Manny Machado has been to the playoffs four times, and in all three stops he’s made in his career: Baltimore, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
Right now, the Padres’ season is falling apart. After a great start to the season, San Diego fell out of first place on May 31 and after Saturday night’s 3-2 loss to the Cardinals, the Padres have a 20.5-game deficit in the National League West and stand 2.5 games behind St. Louis in the wild-card race.
San Diego had a 2-0 lead when Fernando Tatis Jr. struck out looking at a high fastball from Adam Wainwright, a call that got Padres manager Jayce Tingler ejected by umpire Phil Cuzzi. And the months of frustration boiled over for Machado.
We don’t know everything that’s been going on behind the scenes, of course, but the situation scans pretty easily. Tingler got ejected so Tatis wouldn’t for showing up the umpire. And Machado would’ve gotten himself tossed earlier in his career for same, and is dishing out the same lesson he more than once got.
Tatis is 22, and it doesn’t matter that he’s an MVP candidate — sometimes 22-year-olds need to heed the words of a 22-year-old Ice Cube and check themselves. The list of people who can tell Tatis to stop acting like an ass is short, and Machado is right at the top. He’s been the young superstar, and even though he’s still pretty young at 29, he’s a 10-year veteran. That’s one of the upsides of the Padres having signed Machado, having the gravitas of his resume while he’s still very much in his prime.
Would it have been better for Machado to give Tatis some tough love out of the public eye? Probably. But given that the knock on Machado for so long has been selfishness, and how he’s been seen to grow as a leader in San Diego, the confrontation in the dugout on Saturday night makes that much more sense.
It obviously didn’t help anything in one game in St. Louis, but even as the 2021 season slips away from the Padres, they continue to have a bright future, centered around Machado and Tatis. A verbal confrontation with a message and no physicality is something they can grow from, and not be a harbinger of greater discord or evidence that anyone involved is a bad teammate. For all the talk of handling adversity in sports, that’s what this is for San Diego.
Say whaaat?
The NFL fining Cleveland safety Ronnie Harrison $12,128, but letting Kansas City running backs coach Greg Lewis off the hook with a warning after they traded shoves last week is total crap.
Lewis shoved Harrison first, and a coach should never lay hands on a player at all. Harrison shouldn’t have shoved back, obviously, but he also was ejected from the game, while Lewis was not. It’s not Harrison who needed additional sanction.
Come back soon, Tito
Fantastic news that Terry Francona is recovering well from surgeries and looking to return to the bench in Cleveland next year. Francona had a hip replacement and then needed additional surgery to treat a staph infection.
Bombs away!
Who doesn’t love a good Hail Mary to win a game?
Well, probably Louisiana Tech doesn’t love this one…
The picks, the aftermath
How’d things go with the feelings-only college football picks?
No. 3 Oklahoma barely even got to the spread number on the scoreboard, let alone trying to cover it, even with the best catch of the day, hanging on for a 23-16 victory that did not match Illinois’ margin over Nebraska. Illinois hasn’t won since, by the way, falling to 1-3 on Friday night with a 20-17 loss to Maryland. LOSS.
West Virginia appeared to be in line for an easy win before No. 15 Virginia Tech rallied late in Morgantown. But the Mountaineers came up with a fourth-and-goal stop to seal the 27-21 cover, er, WIN.
Michigan beat Northern Illinois, 63-10. Michigan State upset No. 24 Miami, 38-17. Eastern Michigan took care of UMass, 42-28. Western Michigan went to Pittsburgh and won a 44-41 shootout. Only LSU stood in the way of a perfect day for the various Michigans, and stand in the way the Tigers did, putting a 49-21 thumping on Central for an easy WIN.
Texas barely covered the 26-point spread against Rice… in the second quarter, which was 28-0 on its own. Of course, it was already 16-0 when the second quarter started, and the game ended 58-0, thanks to the Longhorns not scoring in the fourth quarter. LOSS.
This week: 2-2
Season: 6-2
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